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Tide turns: The Maternité drinking fountain in Royal Exchange. The City is planning to install new fountains and is looking for funding to restore existing historic ones

City chiefs are drawing up plans to install a network of drinking fountains in the Square Mile.

The first standpipe-style fountain is due to be installed close to St Paul's cathedral early in the new year to encourage workers and tourists to stop buying bottled water.

The Corporation of London will install more of the £7,000 fountains across the City if the scheme is a success.

Today, environmental groups said it was a victory for the Evening Standard's Water on Tap campaign and could reduce London's carbon footprint.

A Friends of the Earth spokesman said: "Anything that encourages Londoners and visitors to the capital to make the most of tap water is most welcome.

"Refilling a reusable bottle at a drinking fountain is an easy way for all of us to cut plastic and glass waste and reduce the size of our carbon footprint.

"Bottled water is often transported here over a long distance - adding to climate change emissions."

The Corporation of London said the new fountain would resemble a traditional standpipe but would still need to pass health and safety rules.

A spokesman said: "People can use it to fill up their bottles. Summers are getting hotter - 2008 was the 10th hottest year on record - and it means people can fill up with good clean Thames Water free and save some money."

The corporation is also bidding for funding to restore and repair its historic drinking fountains, including the Maternité in Royal Exchange, St Dunstan's in Fleet Street and the fountains on Blackfriars Bridge and in Finsbury Square, many of which have not been in working order for generations.

The Evening Standard has been leading the fight against bottles with its Water on Tap campaign, which has persuaded 3,000 London restaurants, clubs, pubs and bars to begin automatically offering customers tap water.

Britons drink three billion bottles of water every year, and half a billion of these are flown or shipped in from overseas, increasing carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change.